Yeah, it was well known after the draft that Ireland was not on board with White, and that it was all Parcells/Henning.

It was well known that Parcells was in love with Odrick. Not sure about the rest of that draft. I'd imagine Sparano had a lot to do with John Jerry being drafted, given he had him at the Sr. Bowl. We've also heard stories about how Parcells was going to draft Jimmy Graham in the 4th round. Then again we heard before the draft how much Ireland loved Reshad Jones.

I guess it's believable. At the same time, it's pointless for us to sit here and say, "this was Ireland's mistaken, this wasn't, this was, this wasn't...."

His 2011 draft was poor. Pouncey is great, but any lineman drafted in the top 15 better be great. Thomas stinks, Gates lasted 1 year. Clay and Jimmy are nice role players, but to not get anything out of rounds 2-5 is unacceptable.

This past draft is yet to be determined. Seems solid, outside the Egnew pick, (which supposedly was all Philbin).

His 2011 draft was poor. Pouncey is great, but any lineman drafted in the top 15 better be great.

And to think that most of us all hoped that Pouncey would be a good as his brother. He's better.

If we don't retain Long, I hope we actually try to lock up Pouncey long term. He's got two years remaining on his rookie contract. If we let him play out his rookie contract he'll wind up becoming a very expensive free agent. But if we re-sign him now, we could add five years to his remaining contract and only wind up paying him about half of what he'd get if he hits the open market. I say reward the man for his play and lock him down ASAP.

As for Parcells controlling the drafts. Of course he controlled the drafts. He was the VP of football operations during that timespan. He oversaw everything football related. While Ireland and the coaching staff did all of the leg work, at some point all decisions had to be run by him. That's what he was hired to do. He packed up his stuff and left his office at Dolphins HQ after the 2010 training camp. Ireland took over after that. Parcells was nothing more than a consultant to Ireland after that.

While I'm not going to give Ireland a total pass on the first two drafts. I'm going to judge him mainly by what has happened in the draft and free agency from mid-October 2010 and on, because he took over as the head honco during that timespan. So far his significant draft picks have been Tannehill (good), Pouncey (great), Martin (good), Thomas (poor), Vernon (ok), Egnew (bad). I consider them significant because they're all high draft picks (3rd round or higher). He traded for Reggie Bush (good), he traded away Brandon Marshall (bad) and Vontae Davis (bad). In free agency he re-signed Incognito (good) and Soliai (great). He signed Burnett (good), Moore (good), Naanee (bad), and Johnson (bad). He gave an extension to Bess (great), Wake (great), and Fields (great). While I know this list isn't exhaustive, these are the moves I associate with Ireland or at least the ones that stand out in my eyes. Based on this I'd give him a grade of C+. But this next draft is going to be huge because as many draft picks as we have, and as much free agent $$$ we have, he can either make or break this franchise depending on what he does.